yeah i’m never enthusiastic whenever my family suggests things to me. plus, I’ve worked in embroidery before which has similar client issues to what I can decipher from 3D printing. A few examples include “my colours don’t match the digital proof!” (that’s because the pantones for threads are not limitless.) and “this text needs to look all fancy, can you make it look like this 1800’s caligraphy?” (if we did that, the text would just be an indecipherable squiggle.)
Dealing with people who have zero understanding that there are limitations to almost everything in the real world has put me off working with physical items for clients ever again. lol
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Prototyping - All sorts of use cases
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As a programmer, I’m used to working with intangible ideas and concepts. That’s why I’m excited to get an A1 Mini to bring my creations to life.
I’ve been looking for a hobby that lets me turn my 3d designs/models into physical objects, and 3D printing perfectly fulfills that need.
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Excellent poll! I would be a mix of the first 2 options.
I used to design boats - using Rhino3D for the last 25 years, and dedicated yacht-design 3D suites before that.
While it is great to be able to render projects as I go, it will be even nicer to be able to print models. 
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Seems you’ve made a really good 3d rendering. I’d love to see more of your work, if you’re willing to share, especially if you have modeled a Nordhavn-76 or 80. There seems to be only one such make on Cults, of a Nordhavn 52 , for a RC model (STL file RC-scale-yacht Nordhavn 52 🛥️ ・Model to download and 3D print・Cults). However, what I’m really interested and looking for, is a 3D make for resin or filament printing, of a Nordhavn 76 or a Nordhavn 80. I am also interested in other 3D yacht models from other yacht manufacturers (Bering, CdM, etc).
@drakko - thanks.
Sadly (or not) my only models are of boats I have designed.
A great place to find people with models is boatdesign.net - more of my stuff is in there under the same username. Just renderings, though - I rarely share for free what I make my living out of. Although I should say “made my living…”
I started learning to do 3d modeling in my teen years. My dad was an engineer and used Autocad. I learned both sides of the 3d coin, the media arts and animation side, and the CAD side. It always frustrated me with cad stuff because for all I learned, they were only just pictures on the screen. I didn’t have the tools or resources to make them real.
I remember when I first discovered 3d printings and started looking at getting one. This was 8ish years ago at this point. Everyone warned me that it was a waste of time, and not to bother. I didn’t listen to them and bought my first 3d printer.
Funny enough, they told me the same thing when I was starting out in the video game industry. That I was wasting my time.
The moral of the story is, don’t listen to people that tell you what you’re doing is a waste of time. If you enjoy it, do it. Within reason.
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I was recently retired as an electronics manufacturing engineer. Several companies where I worked would make SLA models and FDM models to check a design before committing tooling. I knew some people who owned printers and they sounded interesting. I mentioned to my son-in-law that I was thinking about getting one while helping him finish their basement. He bought me the printer as a Christmas present last November.
I have gotten so much enjoyment from printing toys for the grandkids and designing my things for around the house.
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My reason isn’t as good as most peoples here, I just got one 2 years ago because I thought that 3d printing was cool, it was just a bad Ender 3 clone but I loved 3d printing so I ended up getting a P1S about 8 months ago
That’s a great looking work bench. Have you done anything to damping the vibrations from your printers? I have my P1S sitting on a paver block 16" x 16" - and that’s sitting on a foam mat. It reduced the vibrations while printing to nearly nothing on the rest of the bench. Or maybe that’s not an issue for you?
Thanks!
I did do some dampening for my printers. Paver block, foam mat together under both printers.
But I also took all of it out and saw no difference that was concerning to me.
It looks better without all that junk sitting underneath the printers. Like I said it prints the same for me.
My prints don’t have to be perfect but they are also not sloppy.
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Your setup looks a lot better than my current setup. I have the dampening going on because of the resin printers. Not sure if it’s needed or not, but doing it just the same.
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I started 3D printing bc I wanted to make a travel kit for an Arduino. I had plastic cases, but nothing that quite fit my needs. My local library has a maker space with 3D printers & courses on how to use everything. 2 years later I bought my own printer & still don’t have a fully working prototype! 
That’s as good a reason as any!
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Mine kind of crosses two categories. I bought it for my creative purposes side hustle making TTRPG accessories.
I work at a university and did a free TinkerCAD workshop to learn some basic 3D design. However, to print anything I had to: design it at home, email it to the library for a quote, go to the library to pay it, wait for the print to be done, then return to pick it up. If one of my measurements was off, I’d have to fix the model and go through the whole process again. That got old quickly.
So, I bought a Flashforge Finder, and the immediate feedback was a huge boost to my learning process. I could print and test parts of models, and really started to understand the challenges of overhangs and bridges.
I upgraded to a Creality CR6-SE for more capability, and now I’ve upgraded+downsized to an A1 Mini Combo for fewer headaches. So far, so good!
I had one of those before I moved to a couple of different BL printers. I love them.
As it was now redundant, I donated it to a local school. I still hated letting it go though.